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Takauji, however, in addition to being humane and just, is
strong-minded, for no peril ever summons terror to his eye or
banishes the smile from his lip; merciful, for he knows no hatred and
treats his foes as his sons; magnanimous, for he counts gold and
silver as stones or sand, and generous, for he never compares the
gift with the recipient, but gives away everything as it comes to
hand. It is the custom for people to carry many presents to the
shogun on the first day of the eighth month, but so freely are those
things given away that nothing remains by the evening, I am told."

A later historian, Rai Sanyo (1780-1832), wrote: "There were as brave
men and as clever in the days of the Minamoto as in the days of the
Ashikaga. Why, then, did the former never dare to take up arms
against the Bakufu, whereas the latter never ceased to assault the
Ashikaga? It was because the Minamoto and the Hojo understood the
expediency of not entrusting too much power to potential rivals,
whereas the Ashikaga gave away lands so rashly that some families--as
the Akamatsu, the Hosokawa, and the Hatakeyama--came into the
possession of three or four provinces, and in an extreme case one
family--that of Yamana--controlled ten provinces, or one-sixth of the
whole empire. These septs, finding themselves so powerful, became
unmanageable. Then the division of the Ashikaga into the Muromachi
magnates and the Kamakura chiefs brought two sets of rulers upon the
same stage, and naturally intrigue and distrust were born, so that,
in the end, Muromachi was shaken by Hosokawa, and Kamakura was
overthrown by Uesugi. An animal with too ponderous a tail cannot wag
it, and a stick too heavy at one end is apt to break. The Ashikaga
angled with such valuable bait that they ultimately lost both fish
and bait. During the thirteen generations of their sway there was no
respite from struggle between family and family or between chief and
vassal." Takauji's record plainly shows that deception was one of his
weapons. He was absolutely unscrupulous. He knew also how to entice
men with gain, but he forgot that those who came for gain will go
also for gain. It would seem, too, that he sacrificed justice to the
fear of alienating his supporters. Not otherwise can we account for
his leniency towards the Ko brothers, who were guilty of such
violations of propriety.

THE SECOND ASHIKAGA SHOGUN

Takauji was succeeded in the shogunate by his eldest son, Yoshiakira,
of whom so much has already been heard. The fortunes of the Southern
Court were now at low ebb. During the year (1359) after Takauji's
death, Kamakura contributed materially to the support of the Ashikaga
cause. The Kwanto was then under the sway of Takauji's fourth son,
Motouji, one of the ablest men of his time. He had just succeeded in
quelling the defection of the Nitta family, and his military power
was so great that his captains conceived the ambition of marching to
Kyoto and supplanting Yoshiakira by Motouji. But the latter, instead
of adopting this disloyal counsel, despatched a large army under
Hatakeyama Kunikiyo to attack the Southern Court. Marching by the two
highways of Settsu and Kawachi, this army attacked Yoshino and gained
some important successes. But the fruits of these victories were not
gathered. The Hatakeyama chief developed ambitions of his own, and,
on returning to the Kwanto, was crushed by Motouji and deprived of
his office of shitsuji, that post being given again to Uesugi
Noriaki, "who had been in exile since the death of Tadayoshi in 1352.
At, or shortly after, this time, Kai and Izu and, later on, Mutsu,
were put under Kamakura jurisdiction, and their peaceful and orderly
condition formed a marked contrast to the general state of the rest
of the empire."*

*Murdoch's History of Japan.

The next event of cardinal importance in this much disturbed period
was the defection of Hosokawa Kiyouji, one of the shitsuji in Kyoto.
This powerful chief, disappointed in his expectations of reward, went
over to the Southern Court in 1361, and the result was that the
Ashikaga shogun had to flee from Kyoto, escorting Go-Kogon. The
situation soon changed however. Hosokawa Kiyouji, returning to his
native province, Awa, essayed to bring the whole of Shikoku into
allegiance to the Southern Court, but was signally worsted by his
cousin, Hosokawa Yoriyuki--afterwards very famous,--and scarcely a
month had elapsed before Yoshiakira was back in the capital. In the
same year (1362), the Northerners received a marked increase of
strength by the accession of the Yamana family, which was at that
time supreme in the five central provinces of eastern Japan--namely,
Tamba, Inaba, Bizen, Bitchu, and Mimasaka. During ten years this
family had supported the Southern Court, but its chief, Tokiuji, now
yielded to the persuasion of Yoshiakira's emissaries, and espoused
the Ashikaga cause on condition that he, Tokiuji, should be named
high constable of the above five provinces.

Meanwhile, the partisans of the late Tadayoshi--the Kira, the Ishido,
the Momonoi, the Nikki, and others--constituted a source of perpetual
menace, and even among the Ashikaga themselves there was a rebel
(Takatsune). Yoshiakira became weary of the unceasing strife. He
addressed overtures to the Southern Court and they were accepted on
condition that he made formal act of surrender. This the shogun
refused to do, but he treated Go-Murakami's envoy with every mark of
respect, and though the pourparlers proved finally abortive, they had
continued for five months, an evidence that both sides were anxious
to find a path to peace. Yoshiakira died in the same year, 1367.

THE SOUTHERN COURT

Previously to this event, a new trouble had occurred in the Southern
Court. The Emperor Go-Murakami signified his desire to abdicate, and
thereupon the Court nobles who had followed the three ex-Emperors
into the Southern lines in 1352 fell into two cliques, each
advocating the nomination of a different successor. This discord
exercised a debilitating influence, and when Go-Murakami died (1368),
the Southerners found themselves in a parlous condition. For his son
and successor, Chokei, failing to appreciate the situation,
immediately planned an extensive campaign against Kyoto from the east
and the south simultaneously. Then Kusunoki Masanori passed into the
Northern camp. Few events have received wider historical comment in
Japan. The Kusunoki family stood for everything loyal and devoted in
the bushi's record, and Masanori was a worthy chief of the sept. So
conspicuous were his virtues and so attractive was his personality
that a samurai of the Akamatsu family, who had planned a vendetta
against him, committed suicide himself rather than raise his hand to
slay such a hero.

How, then, are we to account for Masanori's infidelity to the cause
he had embraced? The answer of his country's most credible annalists
is that his motive was to save the Southern Court. He saw that if the
young Emperor. Chokei, persisted in his design of a general campaign
against Kyoto, a crushing defeat must be the outcome, and since the
sovereign would not pay heed to his remonstrances, he concluded that
the only way to arrest the mad enterprise was his own defection,
which would weaken the South too much to permit offensive action.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was then shogun at Muromachi. He had succeeded to
that office in 1367, at the age of nine, and his father, then within
a year of death, had entrusted him to the care of Hosokawa Yoriyuki,
one of the ablest men of his own or any generation. There are strong
reasons for thinking that between this statesman and Masanori an
understanding existed. So long as Yoriyuki remained in power there
was nothing worthy of the name of war between the two Courts, and
when, after his retirement in 1379, the struggle re-opened under the
direction of his successor (a Yamana chief), Masanori returned to his
old allegiance and took the field once more in the Southern cause.
His action in temporarily changing his allegiance had given ten
years' respite to the Southerners.

PEACE BETWEEN THE TWO COURTS

The Southern Emperor, Chokei, coming to the throne in 1368, abdicated
in 1372 in favour of his brother, known in history as Go-Kameyama.
During his brief tenure of power Chokei's extensive plans for the
capture of Kyoto did not mature, but he had the satisfaction of
seeing the whole island of Kyushu wrested from Ashikaga hands. It is
true that under the able administration of Imagawa Sadayo (Ryoshun),
a tandai appointed by the Ashikaga, this state of affairs was largely
remedied during the next ten years, but as the last substantial
triumph of the Yoshino arms the record of Chokei's reign is
memorable. It was, in truth, the final success. The decade of
comparative quiet that ensued on the main island proved to be the
calm before the storm.

The most prominent figures in the closing chapter of the great
dynastic struggle are Hosokawa Yoriyuki and Yamana Mitsuyuki. When
the second Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiakira, recognized that his days were
numbered, he summoned his trusted councillor, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, and
his son Yoshimitsu, and said to the latter, "I give you a father,"
and to the former, "I give you a son." Yoriyuki faithfully discharged
the trust thus reposed in him. He surrounded his youthful charge with
literary and military experts, and secured to him every advantage
that education could confer. Moreover, this astute statesman seems to
have apprehended that if the cause of the Southern Court were not
actually opposed, it would die of inanition, and he therefore
employed all his influence to preserve peace. He endeavoured also to
enforce strict obedience to the economical precepts of the Kemmu
code, and altogether the ethics he favoured were out of harmony with
the social conditions of Kyoto at the time and with the natural
proclivities of the young shogun himself. In fine, he had to leave
the capital, too full of his enemies, and to retire to his native
province, Awa.

During ten years he remained in seclusion. But, in 1389, a journey
made by the shogun to Miya-jima revealed so many evidences of
Yoriyuki's loyalty that he was invited to return to Kyoto, and with
his assistance the organization of the Ashikaga forces at Muromachi
was brought to a high state of efficiency, partly because the astute
Yoriyuki foresaw trouble with the Yamana family, which was then
supreme in no less than ten provinces, or nearly one-sixth of all
Japan.